Blue Carbon Policy in Indonesia

Updated 2026-11-02 · 4 min read · By the akar.earth specialist team

Blue carbon policy in Indonesia explained: which rules apply to mangrove and seagrass carbon, who is responsible, and what to check before you start.

Indonesia has no stand-alone blue carbon law. Mangrove and seagrass carbon projects sit inside the national carbon-trading framework anchored by Perpres 110/2025, with sector rules on top: mangroves inside the state forest area follow forestry carbon rules such as Permenhut 6/2026, and exchange-traded units must be recorded in SRUK.

Indonesia holds one of the largest mangrove areas in the world and extensive seagrass meadows, so blue carbon matters to its climate targets. The policy picture has changed fast in 2025 and 2026. This guide sets out the layers and the practical questions to answer before you commit money.

The policy layers that apply

Read the regulation timeline for dates. Several implementing details were still being refined when this guide was written, so confirm the current text before relying on any single provision.

Who is responsible for what

Responsibility for mangroves follows land status, which is the first thing to establish:

• Inside the state forest area (kawasan hutan): forestry authorities. Carbon activities follow forestry procedures, and community access often runs through social forestry permits.
• Outside the forest area: coastal land may be titled, village-managed or under regional spatial plans. Marine spaces and seagrass involve the marine affairs ministry and provincial governments.
• Restoration programmes: a national agency for peat and mangrove restoration has run rehabilitation programmes with provinces and communities. Check its current mandate, since institutional arrangements have shifted.

Since the 2024 reorganisation, forestry and environment sit in separate ministries. Environment-side rules, such as the waste-sector regulation Permen LH/BPLH 11/2026, show that each ministry is issuing its own sector procedures. Expect a blue carbon project to deal with more than one agency.

Step-by-step policy check for a blue carbon project

1. Establish land and sea status for every polygon: forest area, non-forest land, or marine space.
2. Identify the rights holders: permit holders, customary communities, pond owners and fishers.
3. Choose the market route: domestic SPE-GRK units on IDXCarbon, an international standard, or both. See IDXCarbon vs international registries.
4. Check domestic recording requirements in SRUK, including any transitional arrangement through ministry systems.
5. Check Article 6 exposure: if buyers want units counted towards another country’s target or CORSIA, you will need authorisation and a corresponding adjustment. See corresponding adjustments in Indonesia.
6. Plan benefit sharing and FPIC in line with domestic requirements and your standard’s safeguards.
7. Brief your validator on the domestic approvals you hold, since they affect legal title to emission reductions.

How international standards fit

Most traded blue carbon credits use Verra’s VCS with VM0033 for tidal wetland restoration. ICVCM has approved coastal and mangrove restoration as a CCP category, and the Isometric Mangrove Restoration Protocol v1.0 was listed as CCP-Approved in one decision batch. A CCP label still needs both an approved methodology and a CCP-Eligible program. Domestic rules decide whether and how a project may sell internationally. International rules decide whether buyers will trust the credits.

Indonesia-specific risks

• Overlapping claims: mangroves often border ponds, plantations and villages with informal tenure.
• Policy timing: rules for international transfers and corresponding adjustments have changed before and may change again.
• Conversion pressure: aquaculture, ports, nickel and coastal development compete for the same land.
• Data gaps: soil carbon is the largest pool in many mangroves but needs field cores to quantify (see mangrove soil carbon).

Documents to keep on file

A blue carbon project should be able to show, for every polygon, the legal basis for the activity and for selling the resulting units. In practice that means keeping:

• land or sea status evidence, such as forest area maps, spatial plan extracts or permits,
• agreements with permit holders, pond owners and customary institutions,
• FPIC records and benefit-sharing agreements,
• domestic registration or recording confirmations,
• any authorisation correspondence for international transfer,
• the version of each regulation you relied on, with the date you checked it.

Validators, buyers and Indonesian authorities may all ask for these. A clean file also shortens due diligence when you raise finance.

Common mistakes

• Assuming a mangrove project needs only a Verra registration and no domestic approvals.
• Treating seagrass like mangrove when the legal route for marine space is different.
• Signing offtake terms that promise authorised, adjusted units before authorisation is realistic.
• Relying on secondary summaries of regulations instead of the official texts.

Our Indonesia regulatory navigation service maps these layers for specific sites and keeps track of new implementing rules.